Matt Cooke

The Kings came into this game off of a 1-0 win over the St. Louis Blues that the Kings were severely out shot and out played but still managed to win thanks to goalie Jonathan Quick and this game was no different. This time Quick was able to stop 40 of 41 shots to keep the Kings riding the wave of his stingy goaltending.

Niklas Backstom was in nets for the Wild and played great but Jonathan Quick was just too much for the Wild coupled with their lack of being able to convert on the power play where they went zero for five. The Wild also were coming in having played relatively few games with a light schedule.

The Wild dominated play in the first period but it was the Kings who ...

We’re officially a week into the 2013/14 NHL playoffs and we’ve already seen our share of overtime dramatics, borderline hits, curious officiating, and Pierre McGuire. While every series has seen at least 3 games played, now is a good time to check in on what we’ve learned through week 1 of the dance and what we should expect over the next week.

The Blackhawks haven't lost many games in regulation this season, nor do they drop many games in the tail end of back-to-back games.

Tonight in Minnesota, they did both, losing 2-1 to the Wild in regulation after playing at Detroit last night.

Chicago looked lackluster in the first period - not surprising, as travel delays out of Detroit after a six-round shootout meant they didn't get to their St. Paul hotel until 3 a.m. Though they had some stretches of pressure in the Wild's end, they were outhit, outshot, and most importantly, outscored.

The Wild's first goal came from Jason Pominville, who continues to collect career points against the Blackhawk...

For the first time this season, the Chicago Blackhawks took two losses in a row.

The Blackhawks gave up one goal to the Wild early in the first, an even-strength goal for Matt Cooke, 4:23 into the game. It would take until late in the second period for Minnesota to grab another goal, this one a power play goal by Zach Parise to make it 2-0.

Chicago was getting outshot and outworked for most of the first and second periods. The Blackhawks had just 7 shots through 27 minutes. They looked more like a team coming off a two-week road trip than a team that had a day off yesterday.

Jeremy Morin would get the Blackhawks on the board with just 17 seconds remaining ...

With all due respect to the New York Islanders tremendous play in round one of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Pittsburgh Penguins were terrible.

They refused to alter their stretch passing breakout plan after the Islanders set up a 1-3-1 trapping system. They refused to battle for long stretches of time in order to stifle the quick transition game of the Islanders. The Penguins almost refused to change everything except for the goaltender and while this worked out to their advantage, it is not going to work this time around.

The Ottawa Senators, the Penguins next opponent in round two of the playoffs, are a completely animal than that of the Islanders. Th...

The victory, Pittsburgh's 15th straight, was also a record night in another way: the Pens have extended their club record shutout streak. The Pens shutout streak now extends over 208 minutes as Pittsburgh has won the last three by shutout.

Pens netminder Tomas Vokoun has extended his personal best shutout streak to just shy of 163 minutes.

When a team finds success in the NHL on a consistent basis, it is very difficult for GM’s to tinker with said success in order to find greater success. It is the easiest explanation as to how the NHL has witnessed such playoff parity. In the modern cap era it has become even more difficult to place a team on the ice that has a continued shot at a championship. So with all of this in perspective, is it possible that we see a Stanley Cup champion this season that has also won the cup within the past five seasons?

It is the question that seemingly everyone in the NHL is waiting to see. With Pittsburgh and Chicago pushing the boundaries of greatness, the NHL might finally witness ...

The Flyers need to rebound after a bad loss against the Rangers on Tuesday. The task won't be easy as they host the first place Penguins. It's going to be another bitter, nasty rivalry game and it's gonna be in the city of Brotherly Love